How did Tattie Toes come together?Shane and I had been playing together for a while, and I wanted to work with Nerea as soon as I heard her sing. We got together and just improvised for months and months, until Rafe joined us and we decided it was time to try and put some songs together. We all came from different persuasions – Nerea was in a band called Zuba, who you’d perhaps term world music, while I was in Maxton Granger, which used two basses and could loosely be called indie – so that was healthy in terms of broadening the band’s sound. You know how everyone’s into the same five or six bands when you put your first group together? Well that wasn’t us.

Where did the name come from?It’s a misinterpretation of one of Nerea’s lyrics. She’s Basque, so I couldn’t even understand the language, but it just sounded a bit rude to me. We toned it down for the name, though.

How did you get the Optimo gig?Keith (Twitch) saw us supporting Sunburned Hand of the Man in November and just seemed to like us. He and I appreciate some of the same obscure 80s’ bands, and I think anyone with those kinds of tastes will find a grain of it in Tattie Toes.